Related, I thought this was a good piece:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/apr/07/schools-school-funding?CMP=twt_gu
Cathie Black and the privatisation of education The abrupt departure of the New York schools chancellor is only a temporary setback for the corporate 'reform' of public schools
also on this topic, did anybody catch Obama's comments about testing:
"So what I want to do is—one thing I never want to see happen is schools that are just teaching to the test. Because then you're not learning about the world; you're not learning about different cultures, you're not learning about science, you're not learning about math. All you're learning about is how to fill out a little bubble on an exam and the little tricks that you need to do in order to take a test. And that's not going to make education interesting to you. And young people do well in stuff that they're interested in. They're not going to do as well if it's boring."
also referring to how his daughters, who go to a nice Friends school, don't have to stress over standardized tests.
Could he possibly be any more clueless?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2011/03/obamas_radical_critique_of_tes.html
Also on this topic, I enjoyed Doug's interview with Diane Ravitch, which I just listened to the other day.